July Reading: Second Half of the Month

 July has ended and August has begun, which means it's time for me to post my thoughts about the books I read in the second half of July. My post about my reading during the first half of July can be found here.

I read a good variety of books in the last couple weeks, which I'm pleased about. I also discovered a new-to-me author I love and I hope to find more of her books. On to the books!

The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 1/4 Years Old  translated from Dutch by Hester Velmans (borrowed from a friend)

This isn't a book I would have picked up. I'm always slightly suspicious about covers like this since I slogged my way through he 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window. I hated that book but read it because it was a book group read. I was new to Ireland and to the group and I later learned that people DNFed books all the time. If I'd only known! There have been more books like that in the years since, always with a similar font for the title and cutesy names. I pass them by and I would not have been drawn to this one. But a friend came over and handed it to me. It was a gift to him for his recent birthday. He read the first few pages, thought it was very funny, but wasn't sure that could be sustained through the entire book and he wanted to know what I thought of it. I read the first few pages and laughed out loud, reading passages to Bill. Since the book is written in the form of a diary, it's an easy one to pick up, read a few entries, and put down. I figured that's how I'd read it. I didn't expect to like it, so short bursts of reading seemed wise. That's how I started. Then I started reading an entire month of entries at a sitting, then two months. Before I knew it, the year was over and I was done with the book. I was surprised to find that I quite enjoyed it. As you can tell from the title, it's about an 83-year-old guy. He lives in a care home in the Netherlands. He makes friends and with them forms a group, the Old But Not Dead group. They organize outings for themselves, which leads to resentment on the part of those outside the group. They also get up to mischief within the care home on a regular basis. My friend thought maybe diary entries about the hijinks of elderly people in a care home would get kind of boring after a while, but there is more to the book than that and the humor held up through the book. In addition to being funny, there are also poignant moments as people look back on their lives. Readers do get glimpses of Hendrik's past and that of a few others in the course of the book, although none of these are dwelt on. Hendrik's observations of the behavior of his fellow residents are presented with a dry with which I quite enjoyed. I was reading various passages to Bill throughout the book. When I gave the book back to my friend, I told him what I thought of it and he was surprised, saying he feels more inclined to read it now. 

Biological War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen

I posted my review of this book here.

I read a few books that will be published soon. I thank NetGalley, the publishers, and the authors or their estates for digital review copies.

Hiroshima, 8:15:The Lost Memoir by Kiyoshi Tanimoto

ISBN 9781529992731

to be published on August 6, 2026 by Ebury Publishing/Penguin Random House

This powerful book is an account of the author's experience of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath. He was one of 6 people featured in John Hersey's book, Hiroshima and as a result of that, Kiyoshi Tanimoto was inspired to write his own manuscript in English, based on diaries he kept at the time these events unfolded. The manuscript was sent to Hersey who thought highly of it, by all accounts. It remained with Hersey's papers in the rare book collection at Yale until his grandson found it and knew it was important.

Tanimoto is an important voice and has a fairly unique perspective. He was a Methodist minister, having converted as a young man upon the death of his mother. His father disowned him. He studied in Japan and then went to the US where, after ordination, served a congregation in Los Angeles before going back to Japan. His experiences in the US and ability to communicate in English, allowed him to interact with both sides in the months and years after the bombing. His observations are important, but they are necessarily limited. This would be true of everyone, of course, but readers should be aware that Tanimoto was interested in converting people to Christianity and some of his ideas about how and why the bombs were dropped and how the military on both sides behaved are colored by this. That doesn't make them wrong necessarily, but some of the statements he makes seemed a bit jarring to me. Others seemed like they illustrated his awareness of the reality of the situation. The power of this book doesn't come from his desire to convert people, however. It comes from his account of what he experienced and observed in the immediate aftermath of the detonation and in the longer term. The US military was keen to downplay the civilian casualties, which one official going so far as to say that radiation sickness provided an easy and pleasant way to die. Of course now we know what really happened but when this book was written, just a couple of years later, it was not widely known. The book contains an excellent foreword by Koko Tanimoto Kondo, his daughter, and an afterword by David Corn, which sums up basic biographical details already presented in the main text, but also provides new information. This is an important book. It's well worth a read.

Illusions (Faber Editions) by Ruth Rehmann; Megan Nolan with Rob Madole (Translator)

ISBN 9780571396580

to be published on August 27, 2026 by Faber and Faber, Ltd

In this quietly devastating book, first published in German in 1959, we follow four employees at a German corporation. They're all at different stages of life and have different backgrounds. They're not particularly friendly with one another, don't really know one another, often misunderstand each other, and are, in some cases, envious of the others. They all work in one small area, which can sometimes create tension. The window cleaner observes them from outside and takes an interest in a couple of them. Frau Schramm has devoted her life to the corporation and it's pretty much what she lives for, but she's aging and although she pushes the reality from her awareness, her working life won't continue on forever. What then? Fraulein Viol is also no longer young, but trying desperately to hide every sign of aging. She's still looking for love, which has been elusive. Therese, the young trainee, makes Fraulein Viol uncomfortable because she's young, attractive, and seemingly with her whole life ahead of her. But Therese is searching too--for what, she has no idea. She is reckless and looking for both excitement and a place/group to belong. Paul, the lone male of the group, is a failed academic who has been hired to translate documents into French. He's not very good at this in a business context and he resents having to do this work, being more comfortable in what he sees as the higher realm of literature. His job performance makes his position precarious. One Saturday at midday, their weekends begin and they leave the building to spend a day and a half without the demands of work. This time they have to fill, with no work distractions, quickly becomes difficult for all of them, each in their own way. The book takes place over this day and a half as we alternate between their stories and their lives change.

This is an excellent book. It is set at a particular time and place, but in some ways, it is timeless. The quiet desperation with which these people face the weekend is so beautifully communicated--I could feel it with each of these characters. The inability to relax and enjoy the time they have, the overthinking, the attempts to manipulate, all illustrate the pain and lack of self awareness these characters are living with. The window cleaner, observing from the other side of the glass, is often not even noticed by these people, but he seems to understand more about them than they do themselves. There would be some sort of dissonance in that time and place, I suppose, so soon after Germany's defeat in the war and the attempts to either bury or come to grips with what the country was in the not-so-distant past. It's not stated what specific year the book is set in, and the war is mentioned in passing a few times, but since it was published in 1959, it would have had an impact on the author and, by extension, the characters. However, I've known people with the same sorts of issues and I wasn't even born when the book was written, so I would say the book goes beyond a particular time and place and describes very human struggles. I had never read anything by this author before, but after having read this, I'd love to read more. Her writing is gorgeous. This is a book I highly recommend. It was a 5-star read for me.

Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel (The New Miss Marple Novel) by Lucy Foley

ISBN 9780008694821

to be published on September 8, 2026 by HarperCollins UK, Harper Fiction

The Swiss Alps, 1950, and the Grand Alpine Hotel is welcoming visitors. Among others, there are Miss Jane Marple, Dolly Bantry, and Mrs. Bantry's paid companion, Diana. Miss Marple's presence is fortuitous because one morning, a guest is found dead in the gondola. With the heavy snow falling and access to the hotel blocked, the police can't get there for a while, so an informal investigation ensues.

The story unfolds from different perspectives. Each chapter is told from the point of view of either The Help (Diana), The Wife, The Friend, or The Star. This is very effective because we are inside the heads of multiple characters. The mystery is well plotted and paced. The characters are an interesting mix of people. I enjoyed the setting. I will say that I had to keep reminding myself that it was supposed to be 1950 because it really didn't feel that way as I was reading. For example, in one scene, one of the characters is called 'Ms' which just felt off in terms of the time and the character using the term. It was out of place.

I'll be honest--I wanted to read this because it features Miss Marple. I love Miss Marple. At the same time, I knew that it wasn't going to read like a Christie novel and Miss Marple would probably seem different, in the same way all of the screen adaptations seem different, depending on who is playing Miss Marple. I decided to set any expectations aside and just read the book, judging it on its own merits as a mystery novel. And I wasn't disappointed. It was a fun read and I was immersed in the story from the start. I kept turning pages because I wanted to see what was going to happen. The twists and turns kept the story moving and the ending was satisfying. The writing was excellent and even though this isn't Christie's Miss Marple, it was fun to see which aspects of her this author chose to feature in her characterization. If there are more Miss Marple mysteries in future, I will definitely read them.

And that wraps up July! I hope you all had an excellent reading month and that August provides us with many excellent books 😀📘📚

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Biological War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen

 Biological War:A Scenario

by Annie Jacobsen

published by: Random House UK, Transworld Publishers

ISBN 9781911742029

In various places around the world, often located near large population centers, sit laboratories exploiting a loophole in international law, where scientists are working to develop and test biological weapons. As technology has evolved, so have the ways in which biological agents can be manipulated to cause maximum harm to humans and other creatures. Unlike nuclear weapons, which have at least a very short window of time between launch and detonation, by the time anyone knows that a biological weapon has been deployed, huge numbers of people are already sick, dying, and dead and the disease is spreading faster than any potential antidote can be administered--if there is an antidote. In this stunning book, Annie Jacobsen explains what these weapons are, how they have been developed, and what could/probably would happen in the event one of these manipulated biological agents of mass destruction was to escape the lab in some way and enter the general population. She does this by laying out one possible scenario--as she points out, not the only scenario or even the worst case scenario, but one that is possible and highly likely. She draws on history, conversations with retired governmental and military personnel with experience in this area, interviews with scientists, including some who worked on biological weapons in the Soviet Union and left, and documents in the public domain, some previously classified. She begins with some background about what kind of work is being done in these labs and how technology is enabling people to create more lethal biological weapons. The benefit of these, at least according to former Soviet officials, was that they would kill the people, leaving the infrastructure intact. After giving readers this necessary background information, Jacobsen then creates a plausible scenario for the escape of one such weapon--a genetically modified plague that has been manipulated to spread more easily through the air and has a higher rate of transmission than plague alone. It's also been created to delay the onset of symptoms. Rather, people feel euphoric when first infected, thus more likely to go out and socialize, which spreads the lethal agent further. In this scenario, the lab is located in Siberia and is unleashed when a worker in the lab recognizes the evil of the project and tries to destroy it by burning the lab down. This wouldn't work anyway, because the flames wouldn't be hot enough to destroy the weapon, but in any case, something goes awry and he is infected. Then he goes to confession, leaving droplets of genetically modified plague in his wake. When he collapses, people--tourists there to hunt big game--try to help him and begin artificial respiration, then carry him to a location where he might get help. They then disperse to their respective countries. Plague spreads. And what happens when people suddenly begin getting horribly sick and dying? Of course, panic, fear, anger, conspiracy theories, and violence. Societal breakdown ensues. We don't have to look too far back--just a few years--to see how this works. And if it was that bad during COVID, imagine what it'd be in a situation like this. Of course, we knew what COVID was. In this scenario, it would take days for people to realize they were dealing with a bioweapon and even more time to figure out what the weapon consisted of. Even more time would elapse before people found out whether or not there were secondary harms added to the plague. 

This book reads like a dystopian thriller, even though it's a scenario built on information, facts, history, science, and expertise. As with her last book, Nuclear War: A Scenario, Jacobsen has created an informative, important work that is also highly readable and explains things beautifully for a general readership. At various points in the book, there are boxes telling the story of some historical event. Each of these was fascinating in and of itself. Usually I'm not keen on that kind of interruption in the text, but it worked really well here. These interludes were well placed, added to the story, and offered a kind of intermission in the tense story unfolding in the main text. Annie Jacobsen is excellent at this kind of writing. I will definitely read whatever she writes next. This is a powerful book packed with important information and much food for thought. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It made me wonder again what on earth humans think we're doing. And how is it that we're even still here? 5 stars--if I could give it more, I would.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a digital review copy. 

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Make Yourself at Home

 As we continue to move through summer, a month past summer solstice and two to go until the autumnal equinox, I'm starting to feel like my usual antsy self--the one that always shows up at this time of year and really, really, REALLY wants autumn to start NOW. Our heat warnings have gone and we've had some lovely grey and breezy days, which always make me feel better. I'm eagerly awaiting the rain that is forecast to appear on Saturday and come back again at the beginning of next week. It's only Wednesday, so plenty of time for the forecast to change. I hope it doesn't but even if it does, I know the rain will return and I will savor it. Any day with little or none of that nasty sun is always welcome.

The plumber says the stabilizing piece for the shower is in his van and will be here 'shortly' to install it. Vague? Yeah, just a little. It could mean anything. In the meantime, we're just being extremely careful, which isn't a bad thing to be in the shower anyway. Still, I'd feel better when 'I'll do it shortly' becomes 'Glad that's sorted.'

Our furry friend Finn is with us for a few weeks and he wasted no time making himself at home.

Since this used to be his home, it's not surprising that he took over immediately 😉😏😃Wherever he is when he's with us, he's done it enough now that he's got a Shari and Bill routine that he just slides right into when his mum goes away.

I am surrounded here by flowers, trees, grass, and various plants. I adore this place. It brings me a feeling of peace, joy, and contentment whenever I am here so being able to live here again feels like a great gift. It is true that I've been slammed by my physical response to the grass and the flowers, but I wouldn't trade it. I was puzzled for a while because I'm used to my seasonal cycle of responses to the natural world. The spring/early summer stuff gets me in the sinuses and when that wanes and the grass starts coming on, I get a sore, scratchy, tickly throat. This year I was getting headaches, which is unusual. I used to get migraines, but that was a different issue and they were different kinds of headaches. Then one day I was outside in the evening and the fragrance from some of the flowers was wafting over me and the light dawned. I have a history of flower-induced, intense headaches. The headaches I was experiencing this year weren't that bad and aspirin took care of them, so as long as I can keep the flowers out of the house--at least the scented ones--I can manage things.  They are just so gorgeous. They take my breath away every time I go outside. I have no idea what most of them are--F is the flower gardener and I just enjoy what results from her work. Here's a very small sample of what's blooming now. There is so much more. 

F says these are honeymoon lilies--not sure if that means the pink ones too

I hope that, whatever you're doing today, there's plenty of time for you to do the things you enjoy. I've got some library books to start!

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I'll Do It Myself

 Some of you may remember the recent shower saga--the delay in installation and subsequent issues. Just when we thought it was ready to go, we hit yet another snag as briefly described at the top of this post. It was leaking and not draining. From there, we went back into waiting mode. F ordered the missing part for the shower door which was needed to fix the leak. When it arrived, she contacted Plumber Guy, who replied 'Great to know.' Well, yes, it's great to know that it's here and it'd also be great to know when you'll be here to put it on. The day finally arrived. Plumber Guy came, commenting that we must be sick of seeing his face. What could I say to that? On the one hand, I am genuinely tired of needing to see his face. On the other, since his face is needed, I am not sorry to see it. He went up and put the part on the door. F appeared. He tried to address the slow drain issue. He showed F various parts. He left, saying that we were good to go and that one day he would make that bracket and put that on to stabilize the wobbly shower sides. Later that evening, Bill and I went up to adjust the water. Since it can't be controlled from inside the shower, we figured we'd better get it close to where we wanted it so we wouldn't have to do it in the morning. Plumber Guy had fiddled around with it quite a bit and messing around with it in the morning didn't seem appealing. I stood at the controls and Bill at the door (photos of the set-up are here). I turned on the water. Bill's hand barely had time to get wet when we saw the water accumulating in the shower tray at a rapid clip. I turned off the shower. We heard a kind of weak trickle as the water drained verrrrrry sloooooowly. The shower head was dripping. I knew this was most likely just because I'd turned off the shower and it would stop, but there wasn't any room to add any more water in the bottom of the shower without it overflowing. I had visions of myself downstairs trying to read or knit and wondering all the while if the dripping had started up again. I started bailing the water out of the shower. Then I said, 'This is really stupid. I'm going to see if I can take care of this myself.'  I waded in.   

You can barely see the drain in this photo--specifically the silver dome thing sitting on top.

Before the plumber came, that was sitting tight in the drain opening. Now it was just perched on top with space between it and the shower floor. I lifted it off. The water continued to trickle. I looked inside the drain and spotted a piece of PVC pipe with a kind of rim that allowed it to perch on the rim of the drain. I pulled that out and discovered that it was open on both ends and had been sitting in a kind of plastic cup. There were no holes or anything in this cup--you could have had a drink of water out of it. I pulled that out. The water drained almost instantly. Bill and I examined these things and wondered wtf they were doing in the drain and what on earth could be their purpose? I took a look inside the drain opening and discovered what the issue was. The drain does not drain right down, like this: T (with the top horizontal bar being the shower floor and the vertical bar being the drain). Rather, it drains like this: T-- . There's a small area with a solid bottom beneath the drain opening and off of that comes the actual drain pipe. The plastic cup and PVC things were sitting in there and blocking the pipe that drains the water. 

When we discovered the water backing up, I contacted F. When I discovered what the issue was, I messaged her again, told her what I'd done and suggested that we might just leave the stuff out of the drain and cover the opening with one of those round flattish strainer things with holes. She said that seemed like a good idea and she'd be over in the morning. We left everything as it was. The next morning, she came over, looked at everything, wondered aloud wtf that stuff was even doing in the drain, and said that she was sure he showed her some kind of basket thing with holes that would act like a strainer. No such thing was anywhere to be found. She agreed with my idea regarding how to proceed, so that's what we did. We've been taking uneventful showers ever since. We continue to await the bespoke bracket. No breath is being held while we wait. 

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July Reading: First Half of the Month

 I'm a couple days late with my mid-month reading check-in as it has been a busy few days. But it's close enough, so here it is.

Murder in the Midday Sun by various authors and edited by Cecily Gaylord (BorrowBox e-bok)

This is a collection of classic crime stories, with a few more contemporary authors in the mix. I read another of these books last month and had a reserve on this one. I've enjoyed all the books I've read--the summery ones and the Christmas/winter ones. 

The Usual Desire to Kill by Camilla Barnes (borrowed from the library)

I'm not sure exactly how I found out about this book, but I think it was from a post in one of the book blogs that I receive in my email. As soon as I read about it, I went looking for it at the library and placed a hold. The person who was writing about the book mentioned the humor and that's what sold me on it. Miranda is a theater professional who is based in Paris, but frequently goes to see her parents in rural France. The family is originally from the UK and Miranda's sister still lives there, but she doesn't see the parents as often. Miranda has one child, a grown daughter. The parents have a relationship that they've both become accustomed to, but is exasperating for others (and indeed themselves). Father is a retired philosophy professor and Mother is a bookish person who is rather obsessed with WWII even though she was born at the very end of it and didn't experience it. communication between the two isn't really happening so when Miranda is there, she runs interference, translates, and tries to smooth things over. She vents her frustrations in emails to her sister and daughter. In one exchange, the sister asks her how she's doing and Miranda replies, 'Oh fine. Just the usual desire to kill.' I did laugh a lot as I read this book, but as I turned the pages, I learned more about how things came to be the way they are and there was sadness mingled with the humor. I couldn't help but feel for people who were so sure they knew what the other person was thinking and feeling only to learn as the point of view shifted, how wrong those assumptions were. People feel certain they have answers about what's going on, but they're often way off the mark. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Said the Dead by Doireann Ní Ghríofa (personal copy)

I almost never buy novels new. I don't buy many new books at all actually, but when I do, they're almost always nonfiction. This author is an exception. I've bought both of her novels new and if there's another one, I'll buy that too. She is excellent. I still have her first novel, Ghost in the Throat, and am looking forward to re-reading it in the not-too-distant future. This book is a keeper too and I expect I'll also re-read it one day. I was so excited when I read this book was coming out and I kept track of the publication date. I didn't want to pre-order it because I wasn't sure when exactly we'd be moving and I didn't want to risk having it sent to our old address. But as soon as we got here and got all the address changes sorted, Bill ordered it for me. Then I had to be patient again because I was so tired from everything that was going on, the grass pollen, and the other summer yuck, that I was I no fit state to be reading a book that I knew would require some focus. As soon as I felt I could give it the attention it deserves, I picked it up and started reading. Like her previous novel, this one isn't easily categorized--she does cross genre boundaries with great skill and the book is part history, part autobiography, part gender analysis, part psychology. The book opens with a woman seeing a newspaper announcement that a section of a local asylum, long abandoned, is going to be transformed into apartments. She ends up going to the location and drawn into the story of the place, the people who lived and worked there, and how these stories intersect with her own life. She becomes obsessed and revisits the site numerous times, observes herself doing things she normally wouldn't do, and going to the archives again and again to read the files pertaining to this place. She realizes that if she'd been born at an earlier time, she wouldn't be raising her children and living with her family because she might well have been brought to this place, having almost committed suicide twice.  She feels connected to it and some of the women who were brought there for real and manufactured reasons--some women had genuine mental health issues but some were just there because they were poor or their husbands/fathers got tired of them and called them crazy, dumping them at the asylum. The author feels a responsibility to these women, very aware that she is now speaking for them, telling their stories, and bringing their lives out of obscurity. When the archivist tells her that she cannot use any real names, the author struggles to come up with pseudonyms, but it feels wrong. She and the archivist come to an understanding--she can use real first names only. As the author reads the case books from the files, she feels herself getting deeper into her curiosity and questions. Much of what she reads was written by one of the first women to become a medical doctor with a specialty in mental illness. Away from the archives, she delves deeper into the personal histories of the doctor and some of the patients. The novel (if that's what it is), contains photos and excerpts from the archives. Much of the book is created from this material, but there's another strand and that's the unknown person who is watching the author. This other narrator describes 'The Reader' and what she was reading and how she felt about it. So there are three layers here: the residents and doctors at the asylum, The Reader, and the unknown observer who seems to haunt the author. I don't think I've gotten across how excellent I think this book is, but I can say that I loved it and am so glad I have a copy that I'll be able to pick up again. There is so much to think about here--history, gendered history, culture change, how some things change superficially but not fundamentally, how to respect people from the past who can no longer speak for themselves, and so much more. The author is also a poet and it shows--her writing is superb. There is a bibliography at the end as well as some further information.  This is not a quick or fluffy read, but it's well worth the time spent with it.

The Bluestockings: The First Women's Movement by Susannah Gibson (borrowed from the library)

This is exactly what the titles indicates--a history of the group of women who came to be known as bluestockings. This history is presented through the stories of the women who were heavily involved, such as Elizabeth Montagu, Harriet Thrale, Frances Burney, and others. I was particularly pleased to see Burney featured in this book. I quite like her novels. I loved this book. In addition to being very informative, it's well-written, tells the stories of these fascinating women while telling the story of the movement they were a part of, including its limitations, and situates them in the context of their times and places. It was inspiring to see the various ways these women pushed back against the barriers they faced and built satisfying lives for themselves. It's a great read.

Finally, I read a couple of books that will be published soon. Thanks to NetGalley, the publishers, and the authors for digital review copies of these books.

The Campervan Detectives by Maeve Haran 

to be published on July 28, 2026 by Bookouture

ISBN 9781805506317

Sadie is approaching 60. One day she discovers something that upends her life. She leaves her home with her miniature schnauzer, Sam Spade. On the spur of the moment, she buys a bright orange campervan and sets off for Winching, where she has happy memories of time spent there with her late father. Sadie was at boarding school in the area, which brings some not-so-happy memories, but she does reconnect with a beloved teacher she had there. Taking Sam Spade for a walk through the community gardens, Sadie sees a mysterious person acting suspiciously. Then she sees the body of a deceased woman, although she can't see her face. After dealing with the police, she finally gets to the campground where she plans to park her campervan. Having no experience with campervans, she is relieved when a fellow camper, Rose, helps her set up her bed and promises to be back in the morning. From there Sadie meets a couple of other women who live in their campervans at the site and quickly connects with them, becoming part of the group. When the closed-minded guy who is in charge of the investigation doesn't get very far, the women decide to investigate themselves. They start calling themselves the Vintage Vanettes and plot ensues from there.

I had such a great time reading this book. I loved the Vanettes and was happy to spend time in their company. Each woman had their own back story which was provided in enough detail to connect with readers, but also leaving room for things to be fleshed out further in subsequent books. The supporting cast was full of interesting personalities. I enjoyed the setting a lot, including the way that Sadie interacted with this environment, which held so many memories but also possibilities for the future. The story moved along at just the right pace and I was kept interested in both the mystery and the people. I admit that at first I was slightly skeptical of the rapid connection between Sadie and the other Vanettes, but then I remembered instances in my own life when such connections happen seemingly in the blink of an eye and in completely unexpected ways. In any case, I soon overcame my skepticism and just settled into the story, which had many elements to it--at times tense, heartwarming, funny, and of course, mysterious. The ending was quite satisfying with regard to the mystery, but also in terms of Sadie's decision-making about where she wants her life to go from there. Will she go back to her old life or will she choose another path?

I'm thrilled that this is the first in a series and I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next book. It's good to know that there's more in store for Sadie and the rest of the Vintage Vanettes.

An Uncommonly Festive Fiasco by Hannah Hendy

to be published on August 6, 2026 by Canelo

ISBN 9781835981610

This is a fun addition to the Dinner Ladies Detectives series. This time, the dinner ladies, led by Margery and Clementine Butcher-Baker, are off-site, catering for the vendors and bands taking part in the Christmas festival at a local community center. Margery, the manager of the dinner ladies group, isn't keen on accepting this gig when offered, but she's talked into it because there's payment involved. It's not long before she wishes she'd gone with her gut and turned it down. It's a cold and rainy weekend and when a tree goes down blocking the road, everyone at the event is stuck there. When the power goes off, things get even worse. While spending a cold and uncomfortable night attempting to sleep on the floor, Margery--no spring chicken--is awakened several times by various noises, including the sounds of an argument. In the morning, Santa's grotto is found to contain a dead body. With the police unable to get through, the dinner ladies are asked to investigate and the story goes on from there.

This isn't quite a festive book, although the cozy aspects of the season are mentioned in the context of what everyone is hoping to get home in time to enjoy. The book could be read as a standalone, but I think it'd be more enjoyable if one has read at least some of the previous books in the series. There are several recurring characters and knowing some of their back stories is helpful, both in terms of understanding who they are and why they behave as they do. There's plenty of humor in the book and I chuckled to myself throughout. The mystery was well done and the ending tied everything up neatly. I do like a cozy Christmas mystery and I enjoyed my time with this one.

And there you have my thoughts on what I read during the first half of July. I hope you're reading some excellent books this month and that you're getting plenty of reading time.

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Score!

 Today we headed off to Donegal town on the bus. We had library books to pick up and I wanted to go to the Animals in Need charity shop. I always like poking around in there and this week they're having a sale-- all denim jeans are €1. Denim is great for various stitching projects so I wanted to pick up a pair or two. Of course the first stop was the bookshelves and I was pretty happy to find a short story anthology, Great Irish Detective Stories and also an old copy of Three Men in a Boat, first published in 1889. I've never seen old Penguin books like this.

After the books, I went over to the sale rack and chose a couple pair of jeans.

I already have some denim in the 'regular' medium shade of blue, so I chose black jeans and the very light blue--almost white ones. I didn't want to go overboard so I stopped there. The pale jeans have holes in them and I have some ideas about how I will use those.

The black jeans have flared legs so a bit more fabric to work with than if they weren't so wide. On my way out the door I looked in the box of free stuff and picked up an oval metal platter that I plan to put plants on. I'm quite pleased with my charity shop score today. I'll have many hours of happy reading and stitching with this lot. It was €3 well spent. 😀

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June Reading: Nonfiction and Upcoming Publications

 After my post yesterday about the fiction and poetry I read last month, I'm finishing up my June reading wrap-up with the nonfiction and soon-to-be-published books I read.

The Making of Home by Judith Flanders (personal copy)

I'd borrowed this book from the library and as soon as I got it home and looked at it, I knew I wanted my own copy. Bill found it at Awesome Books and while he was at it, picked up a couple of other books by this author. Her name seemed familiar and it dawned on me that I might have read one of her later books about the history of alphabetical order which was an extremely enjoyable and fascinating read. I looked it up and yes, that's her. At that point I had even higher hopes for this book and I was not disappointed. It's an excellent book and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute I spent reading it. I was engrossed. Flanders starts by making the distinction between languages that have the same words for house and home and those that have different words. She argues that in the former, much of life occurs in public places while in the latter, it takes place in more private settings. Because of this, ideas of what home is evolved in different ways, which she proceeds to lay out. As she does throughout the book, she provides numerous examples to illustrate her ideas. These examples come from various countries, primarily western European, but also the US. She recognizes that this is a limited area, but to include Asia and other places would make the book impossibly long. Even within this limited geographical area, the differences are interesting, going from when home was pretty much one room to what we see today. Once houses started to have more specialized areas, family life changed as well, of course. She writes about practical things, such as how the process of cooking changed as the configuration of houses changed as well as how attitudes and cultural/societal expectations changed. For example, heating used to be from a kind of fireplace, of course. This was usually in the center of the room and there was a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape. This had implications for how people lived on the ground but also showed the ways in which people used the smoke to preserve meats and to clear thatched roofs of vermin. Eventually, the fireplace was moved to a wall and there was a sort of hood over it. People would sit under this hood to eat and socialize. When the swinging crane to hold the cooking pots was introduced, the cook no longer had to lean into the fire to deal with the food. And because there was usually just one big pot, food was usually boiled or stewed. It wasn't until stoves were invented that people could plan on cooking numerous things at once. Beyond the practicalities, there were also emotional connotations to fireplaces, not to mention image issues. When more efficient stoves became available, many people (depending on class) bought them because they gave out more heat more efficiently. Expert advice manuals chided people who preferred the stoves for abandoning the fireplace because the stove didn't create the same image. Even small changes could lead to culture change, as it did with a switch from twig brooms to corn brooms. When people used brooms made from twigs, there were certain bits that did not get swept up. These bits were not considered dirt and were just left on the floor. But when corn brooms became the norm, that changed. These brooms could sweep up finer particles so what didn't used to be considered dirt now was and it was expected that it would be removed. Reading this I was reminded of things I've read about the impact of electricity in rural Ireland. When people used oil lamps for light, much simply wasn't visible. When electric light was installed, people felt some dismay about the dirt in the corners that became visible. And of course, all these changes in expectations and definitions of cleanliness--the evolution of the definition of dirt--meant more work for women. You can probably tell that I just love this book and I'm so glad to have my own copy.

Here are a few books that will be published soon. I thank NetGalley, the publishers, and the authors for digital review copies of these books. Publication dates may vary, depending on location.

On Taste: In Humans and Other Animals

by Davide Risso; Gabriella Morini

Published on August 25, 2026 by Columbia University Press

ISBN: 9780231221290

This fascinating and informative book does exactly what the title says--explores how taste works in humans and other animals. I'll say at the outset that I have no background in biology or other hard sciences, other than a general class or two as an undergraduate. No matter--I found this book to be very accessible. Concepts were explained well without getting deep into the weeds where it would be hard to follow. It's a short book, but ranges widely across different aspects of taste. I was particularly interested in the cultural and linguistic evidence/aspects of taste and the foods humans eat and don't eat. I learned some fascinating things, like the fact that we have taste receptors all over, not just in our mouths, that temperature has an impact on taste, and that some sea mammals and penguins do not taste because they simply swallow their food, for example. Some whales, however, still have active receptors for salty tastes. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can definitely recommend it.

Christina Rossetti: Over 100 selected poems

by Christina Rosetti; Pele Cox

to be published on March 16, 2027 by Gemini Books Group

ISBN 9781786752116

This is a lovely collection of some of Christina Rosetti's poems, which includes well-known work like Goblin Market and In the Bleak Midwinter, as well as other poems across a variety of topics. These topics include love (not only romantic love), spirituality, death and the afterlife, , and nature and beauty. Like so many people, my introduction to Rosetti's work was the Christmas carol, In the Bleak Midwinter, which I still love. Later I read Goblin Market in an anthology. I thoroughly enjoyed reading more of her work, all of which was new to me. I will seek out more.

I quite like the way the book is structured. It begins with a picture of Rosetti and a short biographical sketch. Each chapter is based on one of the themes listed above and begins with a short (one page long) explanation of the significance in the topic to Rosetti and her work. Following this, there are poems with one or two in each section accompanied by a short critique of the poem. This is the third book in this series that I've read and I have loved them all. I highly recommend this one if you're at all interested in Rosetti, Victorian literature, or poetry in general.

Gaining Ground

by Joan Barfoot

to be published on August 25, 2026 by Faber and Faber

ISBN 9780571399888

As I was reading this excellent and powerful book, I kept wondering why I'd never read any work by this author before. After reading it, I know I'll be reading more. I loved this book, which opens with a woman who is outside, hard at work and reminding herself that her name is Abra. She is so used to being alone that she's almost forgotten her name, even as she knows who she is. She sees a visitor coming up the lane towards her cabin and is dismayed. She doesn't know who this person is or what she wants, but soon learns that this is her daughter, Katie, now grown, who was 9 years old when her mother left. The interaction is tense, but Abra suggests that Katie book herself into a hotel in the nearby town and visit her from time to time. Katie agrees. These visits and their time together bring up memories for Abra and readers learn about her past life--how she ended up in what other people might see as an enviable life, only to walk away to create a life based on what felt right to her.

There is so much in this book and so much that I could relate to in my own life. I grew up in the kind of world Abra left behind and the author captures the shallowness and game-playing aspect of it so well. Even though Abra and her husband, Stephen, are successfully 'improving' their situation as the years go by, at least by societal standards, Abra feels less and less satisfied with and more and more distant from her own life. She doesn't feel successful at all, even as she rationalizes with herself about what she 'should' feel. She loses herself and feels like she's acting out a life. I've been there myself. It can be bewildering to understand that what people think is a good life is quite the opposite of that on a personal level. Abra doesn't set out a plan to leave her family, the whole thing unfolds quickly and unexpectedly. One day, she just knows where she is supposed to be. But the groundwork had been laid over several years as she came to understand that she was the outlier and she couldn't live her life in the situation she was in. Her husband wasn't going to give up his life and while some version of her could continue to exist in that world, she couldn't build a life there. Throughout the book, readers follow Abra's thought processes, her growing awareness, her epiphanies, and her evolution. I was gripped by this book from the start. I was rooting for Abra and felt some tension about how Katie's arrival would impact her hard won peace. For me, moving away from a situation in which I was acting out a life with my name on it didn't involve leaving my family, but it did involve leaving a world in which I'd invested most of my adult life to that point. It was extremely difficult and it took a long time to get back to myself. Joan Barfoot captures this perfectly. This edition also contains a fascinating afterword by the author in which she writes about the book and about the reactions to the book when it was first published. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

And that wraps up my reading wrap-up for June. I hope you had an excellent reading month then and are having one now. Happy reading!

PS: Jeanie, of The Marmelade Gypsy, commented on yesterday's post that she's not a fan of short stories in general, but enjoys mystery short stories. For Jeanie and anyone else that enjoys mystery short story collections, I wanted to recommend Deadlier: 100 of the Best Crime Stories Written by Women, edited by Sophie Hannah. It's an excellent collection and a great read--perfect for dipping into to read a story here and there as the mood strikes. I highly recommend it--and Jeanie's blog, which also involves books and art as well as beautiful photos and interesting stories.

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